Sunday, July 26, 2015

I've been working for months on a piece for the Openings Collective fall show at St Paul the Apostle in NYC, On the Inner and Outer Self.

'Unknown Just' came with me to the Openings Residency at St Mary on the Lake, Lake George NY. This piece was designed to incorporate nails, one of several pieces I’ve done over the years exploring this form. The step where the nails go in has been a tough one in every piece like this I’ve done, in this one even more so. The piece draws on a number of themes, Congolese nail fetishes, images of st Sebastian and the wounded Christ, the legend of the 36 Just, and the personal resonance of that legend as dealt with in the novel Last of the Just. It's a hard piece I've regretted starting several times.

In that context, deep thanks go to Sara Paige, fellow resident, for the suggestion to make the nails a collective effort during the residency. This shared effort was a perfect fit with the rituals that partly inspired the piece and the underlying theme of how we process and find meaning in trauma collectively and spiritually. I’m deeply grateful to everyone who put part of themselves into this work. You added a spirit and depth of meaning to the piece I never anticipated. I’ll be thinking about how collective acts like this could influence future work.

“Rivers of blood have flowed, columns of smoke have obscured the sky, but surviving all these dooms, the tradition has remained inviolate down to our own time. According to it, the world reposes upon thirty-six Just Men, the Lamed-Vov, indistinguishable from simple mortals; often they are unaware of their station. But if just one of them were lacking, the sufferings of mankind would poison even the souls of the newborn, and humanity would suffocate with a single cry. For the Lamed-Vov are the hearts of the world multiplied, and into them, as into one receptacle, pour all our griefs."

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

So it's been more than two years since the Cedar Lane oak came down and I've been carrying a cross section of it around in the back of my van since last October. Today I finally installed it in the Teaneck Library. Looks pretty good I think.

Thanks to the countless people who worked to make this possible. Perry and Gladys Rosenstein of the Puffin Foundation who have supported the project from the beginning. Thanks to Kevin Wright for arranging the tree ring dating at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Thanks to Peter Both from Bergen County Parks who passed the section off to me. Thanks to everyone involved in the search for a final location for the cross section, Liz Celotto, Teaneck Mayor Lizette P. Parker, Teaneck Township Manager William Broughton, State Senator Loretta Weinberg and her chief of staff Debbie Francica. A special thanks to Teaneck Library Director Mike McCue for accepting the trunk and helping to move and install it. Thanks also to the friends, family and countless people, some without knowing it, who have kept me vertical over these years.

Saturday, July 11, 2015

"In one of my favorite Hasidic
tales, it is the night of the Passover. A peasant is rushing to finish
his work in the field so he can attend to the holy service. But alas,
the sun drops and it is darkness when no travel is permitted. Next day
the rabbi spots him and asks where he's been " Oh Rabbi, it was
terrible-I was stuck in my fields after dark and had to spend the night
there." "Well," says the rabbi, "I suppose you at least recited your
prayers" "That's the worst of it, rabbi I couldn't remember a single
prayer." "Then how did you spend the holy evening?" asks the rabbi. And
the peasant answers, "I could only recite the alphabet and pray that God
would rearrange the letters." -Robert Ellsberg, The Catholic Worker, 1979

Friday, July 10, 2015

"Smiling politely at
abusive behavior is a practice that I have perfected over the years.
Being a gentleman, slight of build, it is a skill that has largely kept
me clear of the destructive path of bullets, and purchased for me a
contingent peace." -Daniel Dunn, The Catholic Worker 1994